Expansion joints, generally speaking, is a crowded art with many patents having been granted particularly in the area of expansion and contraction of concrete slabs where the joint between the slabs expands in response to contraction of a drying slab. Where tiles, stucco or plaster are laid up on a substrate such as a concrete slab or a wall movement of the substrate and/or the tiles creates a situation where there can be cracking or separation in the floor or wall.
In the case of tiles these are quite often ceramic tiles. The substrate and/or the tiles may move due to expansion and/or contraction. It is desirable to provide expansion joints in the form of divider strips that allow for this movement.
It is conventional practice to form expansion joints in tiling floors where simple strips of angle are placed side by side with one flange adhered horizontally to the substrate and the other flange at 90 degrees is upright. Tiles are applied over the horizontal flange up to the vertical upright flange. A caulking or other flexible seal is applied to the gap between the vertical flanges of the space strips. Over time there can be unsightly separation of the tiles or the seal from the strip. This creates gaps where debris can accumulate. In food areas, food particles can accumulate in these gaps, liquids can pass through and under the tiles. Reparation and repair costs can be high as whole sections of tiles may have to be removed and replaced which can change the whole look of a tile section in say a shopping mall where wear and tear on the surrounding tiles that remain, compared to the newer replaced tiles, can be detrimental to the whole look of the flooring in what is otherwise intended to be a desirable sales environment. This can generate complaints from store owners and tenants and there is also the inconvenience of having the tiles relaid.
The present applicant has conducted a search post invention in order to see just what kinds of expansion joints have been used in relation to ceramic tiles or other layered arrangements where these layered arrangements are layered up on a substrate and has found the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,903,587;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,294;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,432;
U.S. Pat. No. 9,062,453;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,488;
EP0165611;
GB2278134B;
US20010017015A1;
GB1485950A;
DE202010015513;
DE19753937C1.
Inclusion of these documents is post the present invention but the contents of these patent specifications are incorporated herein by cross-reference in their entirety and the reader hereof should consult these documents in as far as they may assist in further understanding or application of the present invention. These also demonstrate examples as to where the present invention might be applied although these are considered non limiting situations.